So, I read on RPS that Sean Murray is now saying there will be base-building dropping in a later patch. (Was that in the patch notes? I kinda skimmed them.)
That sounds like a creator having a crisis of faith in his art, hours before the public is going to get their hands on it.
Uh. How? And yes, the patchnotes said that basebuilding and player-owned freighters are a down-the-road thing. It's very much in fitting with the conceptualization of how multiplayer works--lets' face it, you're unlikely to ever come back to bases you build out in the boonies, but once you're in the core you might build to stay. So you've got a galaxy full not only of generated structures, but also (hopefully) with old player structures. You could come across something that was built literally years ago, with little indication as to its purpose, maybe even happen across a little cache of resources that the owner left behind.
I suspect it could also play a role in extragalactic exploration. Remember, NMS spans multiple galaxies, and although it's apparently possible to warp from one edge to another, I suspect that there might be something at the core akin to a stargate that would allow you to transit to the core (or edge) of other galaxies, in which case a central base location would actually serve a purpose.
--
On an unrelated note, I think I've figured out why there's such a divide in opinion over the game. It's
that game. You know, that game. Or rather, the latest attempt at making that game. The game you turn to when you're despairing because you'll never float in space beyond visual range of any world, that you'll never see an unfamiliar sun rise over the horizon of an alien world. That's also, I think, why the negative comparisons are so often "Minecraft in space" or "3D Starbound", because those are games that arose from the womb of a gaming era largely devoid of attempts at making that game.
Put it like this. Some people, when they play, like a paint-by-numbers kit, a chess set, a tabletop with a box full of Lego. Some people like to slip out the back door and off into the woods, returning hours later sweaty, tired, covered in scratches, full of new memories. If you don't enjoy being that spec in a vast and uncaring cosmos, if you don't enjoy seeing each new dawn from a new vista, if you don't want to be the one that goes where no one has... &c., NMS, like all other attempts at making that game, probably isn't for you.
That's not to say it's perfect, or the culmination of that game. It's not. But it's the best we've had in a long time, and a sight better than any of the ones that coasted by on nostalgia, and that's just at launch.
I think that when I start playing I'll keep a travelogue of all the best sunrises and sunsets I encounter. One from each world, maybe, with a little entry to help me remember them better.
--
That said, I wouldn't buy the game if it were PS4 exclusive. I feel sorry for those poor fools, stuck playing a game with next-gen demands on a last-gen console, capped at 30 FPS and a shitty FOV. PC masterrace represent, we suffer not from Sony's hubris.
Also, I'm somewhat concerned over the whole thing where you apparently can't fly too close to a planet's surface. I wanted to do high-speed nape-of-the-earth flying, but apparently that's not allowed because PS4 and PC players with low-end machines can't handle rapid terrain fill when it's the high-res textures. Should have made it a toggle so people with solid machines could do it. Possibly it's also an anti-moron measure to stop idiots from crashing their ships and whining about it, but I sorta doubt it, given that the insurance elsewhere is bare-bones "you will always be able to get resources to escape this world/system somehow, even it it's a pain in the ass".
Incidentally, that's also probably why player harvesting and terrain destruction is local-only, to remove the (highly unlikely) chance of someone landing on a planet that's been strip-mined previously and not having enough fuel to get back into orbit.
Also have the
Giant Bomb "Quick Look" (running time approx. 1h 53m). They've been the most even-handed and unbiased of the reviews I've seen, as well as the most in-depth. They cover the sticking points well, but don't try to downplay the good stuff, and their ignorance is mostly on minor details rather than important elements of the game.
Author
Topic: No Man's Sky - 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 planets to explore (Read 148911 times)